Purchased from The Vintage Cellar, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Notch on the back label has the “06” cut out! Old? Difficult to tell to be honest.
Poured with a decent amount of mocha colored head and a surprisingly reddish body. It looks good but under no circumstances would one call this black, and to be honest it has the appearance of a brown ale; a good brown ale, but a brown ale nevertheless. Decent lace and retention.
The nose and tastes are obviously very malty (as per the style and in line with Einbecker beers in general) and there is plenty of sweetness too. Hop balance is at a minimum of course.
Definite organic, musty, earthy notes as well. This MAY be connected to the age of the beer, but without further information it is difficult to tell.
Delighted with the lower ABV and the drinkability despite the suspect age of the bottle.
All in all, definitely NOT as “black” as I was expecting, and definitely drank more like an English brown ale rather than anything else. Despite these attributes I still enjoyed it very much.